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Edison Rex is the smartest man in the world, a criminal genius, and the archnemesis of the world's greatest protector, Valiant. Having dedicated his life to defeating Valiant and proving once and for all that he is a menace to humanity and not a hero, what will Edison do once he finally succeeds? And with Valiant out of the way, who will be left to protect the Earth? This volume collects the first seven issues of the Monkeybrain Comics digital series for the first time.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This was my introduction to Dennis Culver and Chris Roberson, but it certainly won't be my last experience. Th artwork was great and the story held your interest throughout, while an underlying"serious" theme through. In many ways, this book can be thought of as a meditation on the inability, or certainly the difficulty, of changing people's initial perceptions of you, a feat whose difficulty is compounded geometrically if that initial perception is formed through widely disseminated media You see, our friend Edison Rex was a super criminal who for reasons I won't explain in order not to give out spoilers, decides to become a good guy. However, no one believes him and anymore would be spoling it. Go Read it for yourself. You won't be sorry.

A bit of an unexpected surprise for me. I ordered it based on the brief solicitation "high concept", and on the name Chris Roberson. I had enjoyed some of Roberson's previous work, so I took a chance on the book sight unseen, and am glad I did. Turned out to be a super-fun page-turner. Sort of a quick read, but that was fine by me. I was wondering why I had never heard of this particular comic before it became available in a paperback collection -- and it turns out that the six individual issues that comprise this story were formerly available exclusively in digital form.

Roberson has hit all the right notes in a homage-laden tale that rings a few new twists on some comfortably familiar old superhero tropes. I would say anyone who has enjoyed such superhero titles as Alan Moore's SUPREME and TOM STRONG, Mike Allred's MADMAN, or Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY, will be right at home and find plenty to like in this book. Kurt Busiek obviously found a lot to like as well, since he wrote the introduction.

Roberson proceeds from the concept that when it comes to comic book super-geniuses, the only thing separating a Reed Richards from a Lex Luthor is the contrasting nature of their respective nemeses. In the beginning, this story seems to play out as a thinly-veiled "What if Lex Luthor defeated Superman and became a hero?", although things don't turn out to be quite that simple.Read more ›

Edison Rex is a book for long time fans of super­hero comics. It's not that it would be unread­able to oth­ers, but they would be miss­ing out on some of the best parts.

Rex is a souped up Lex Luthor ana­log and when he defeats his Super­man ana­log in a won­der­fully goofy and sil­ver age style trap, he con­cludes that he must now become the pro­tec­tor of earth. He does this not out of any self­less rea­sons, but out of pure ego.

And as a "hero" he acts pretty much like you'd expect a clas­sic super vil­lain to act. He's arro­gant, thought­less and only really looks at the end results.

Where many mod­ern takes on super­heroes have focused on mak­ing the char­ac­ters more real and more human, Chris Rober­son goes entirely the other way and com­pletely embraces the Sil­ver Age insan­ity. The char­ac­ters have that pulp sen­si­bil­ity to them and a lack of the self-awareness that tends to plague all mod­ern writing.

Despite all his efforts Rex is still seen as a super vil­lain by the world at large. And yet they still hap­pily go to work for him, or attend his press con­fer­ences. And their pro­posed solu­tion to him? Change city ordinances.

Den­nis Culver's art sup­port this with strong jawed, wide shoul­dered men and a car­toon­ing style that empha­sizes broad strokes over intri­cate details. Not to men­tion some great sil­ver age style char­ac­ter designs.

And along the way we get nods not just to Super­man and Lex Luthor but also Bat­man, the Fan­tas­tic Four, Cri­sis on Infi­nite Earths, Biz­zaro Super­man, AIM and MODOK.

There's even an advert for Moistest Fruit Pies at the back of the book. And if you don't get that ref­er­ence then that's exactly what I mean about the book being for long time fans.

I had a blast read­ing this. It's not going to change your world view on any­thing. It's not say­ing any­thing new about comics or super­heroes. It's pure fun.

Edison Rex wants to be a superhero. In fact, he used to be until hero Valiant showed up. But Edison has a plan. Get rid of Valiant and take his place. It would be a good plan, but his sidekick M'Alizz still thinks they should just conquer the planet. Then there's the pesky problem of the news media still seeing Edison as villain, no matter what he does to fight crime.

Edison collects an odd crew around him of misfit villains, and it's great to see the lairs of Valiant and Edison. It's all lots of fun, and enough curve balls are thrown into the mix that it kept me thoroughly entertained and wondering what was coming next. It ends with an awesome final panel.

Included are bio files for the characters and stats on weapons, and a really nice afterword from creator Chris Roberson on the creative process. I absolutely loved a full page panel by Dennis Culver in Valiant's lair which was a cut-away and showed Edison's progress through different floors. The panels are clean and not cluttered. The colors are vibrant and the story by Chris and art by Dennis Culver give the whole book a sort of retro look of the comics I loved as a kid, kind of like Gold Key Comics. If you like Tom Strong by Alan Moore, you will probably enjoy this also.